Virgilio Villoresi’s hand-crafted and entrancing take on the myth of Orpheus, Orfeo is our new release pick for Art House Theater Day 2026!
Since he was a child, Orpheus has imagined stories about an abandoned villa across the street from his house. A solitary and visionary pianist, during an evening at the Polypus, the club where he plays, he meets Eura’s gaze. An unconditional love blossoms between them, but she’s concealing a secret. Then she disappears. One evening, Orpheus sees her enter a small door on Via Saterna, in front of the villa. He follows her. Before the threshold, he encounters the Green Man, an enigmatic figure who seems to know the mysteries of that passageway. Once through the door, Orpheus enters a visionary afterlife…
Art House Theater Day (AHTD) is an annual program of AHC that brings audiences together to celebrate all that art house theaters, and independent film, contribute to our cultural landscape: ambitious and innovative art that provokes, challenges, entertains, and inspires.
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Celebrate Art House Theater Day 2026 with a 4K restoration of Car Wash, also celebrating 50 years since its initial release!
This day-in-the-life cult comedy focuses on a group of friends working at Sully Boyar’s Car Wash in the Los Angeles ghetto. The team meets dozens of eccentric customers — including a smooth-talking preacher, a wacky cab driver and an ex-convict, while cracking politically incorrect jokes to a constant soundtrack of disco and funk. Some of the workers find romance as the day moves along, but most are just happy to get through another shift.
Fueled by a stacked cast that includes standout comedic turns from Richard Pryor and George Carlin, the film moves to the rhythm of its era’s funk-infused soundtrack and loose, improvisational energy. Light on its feet but rich in character, Car Wash turns an ordinary job into a day-long portrait of exhaustion and unexpected joy.
Art House Theater Day (AHTD) is an annual program of AHC that brings audiences together to celebrate all that art house theaters, and independent film, contribute to our cultural landscape: ambitious and innovative art that provokes, challenges, entertains, and inspires.
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OC Pride is back at The Frida to present Luca Guadagnino’s sun-drenched Italian Summer coming-of-age film Call Me by Your Name!
In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet) spends his days in his family’s villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio’s father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.
With its lush landscapes, unforgettable performances, and achingly human sense of time slipping away, Call Me by Your Name captures the exhilaration and heartbreak of first love with extraordinary sensitivity. Guadagnino crafts a world so vivid that audiences can practically feel the Summer heat.
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Our Page to Screen title for the month of July is the enduring coming-of-age classic The Graduate! Ben…
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Revenge gets ripped.
Our Nu-Classics pick for July is Rose Glass’ 2024 “be gay, do crime” thriller Love Lies Bleeding! And make sure to stick around after the screening as our host (and award-winning actor, screenwriter, and Youtuber) Maggie Mae Fish has a conversation about the film with actress, writer, and creator of Philosophy Tube, Abigail Thorn!
Love Lies Bleeding follows a gym manager, Lou, that falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Las Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.
Celebrated for its intense tone, blending elements of a gritty crime thriller, dark comedy, and surreal body horror, Love Lies Bleeding is an experience tailor-made for the big screen!
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Brian Helgeland’s medieval action comedy A Knight’s Tale is getting a very special late-night encore on June 20th to celebrate its 25th anniversary!
William Thatcher (the unforgettable Heath Ledger) is a peasant who disguises himself as a noble knight to compete in jousting tournaments across Europe. With the help of his loyal friends, including a witty writer named Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany), William rises through the ranks of the tournament circuit, all while hiding his true identity. Along the way, he falls in love with a noblewoman and faces off against the ruthless Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell), his main rival.
With its energetic blend of medieval action and humor, A Knight’s Tale quickly became (and has remained) one the 21st century’s most beloved cult classics!
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Join The Frida Cinema for a special birthday fundraiser screening of Sydney Pollack’s romantic classic The Way We Were! This screening is generously underwritten by our beloved former Board President and Official Birthday VIP Laura Vasquez!
Widely regarded as one of the greatest romance films of all time, and the first film Laura saw that made her fall in love with cinema, The Way We Were features Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford in a timeless story of when opposites attract against the backdrop of the post-WWII McCarthy era.
Prior to the screening, The Frida’s Director of Marketing and Classic Movie Nights host Bekah Phillips will be giving one of her legendary informative and entertaining presentations on the history of the film.
Always a champion for The Frida, Laura will also be matching the first $500 donated to The Frida before and during the event on her official birthday fundraiser page!
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Love is a force of nature.
We’re headed back to Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee’s heartbreaking American epic starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.
The film is about Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, two young ranch hands whose chance summer tending sheep on Wyoming’s Brokeback Mountain sparks a lifelong, impossible romance. What begins as a brief encounter deep in the wilderness grows into a decades-spanning bond shaped by the harsh realities of the world around them.
With luminous cinematography capturing the staggering beauty of the American West, a mournful score by Gustavo Santaolalla, and deeply vulnerable performances from Ledger, Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, and Anne Hathaway, Brokeback Mountain remains a landmark of Queer Cinema.
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Just added: Producer Steak House will be joining us in-person for this screening!
As groundbreaking now as it was when it was released 25 years ago, By Hook or by Crook is coming to The Frida Cinema with a brand new 4K restoration via our friends at Altered Innocence!
Shy, a handsome, gender-bending, small town dreamer with a nagging messiah complex, and Valentine, a deliriously expressive, wise-acre adoptee on a misguided search for her birth mother. The two freaky grifters join forces and learn the true meaning of “poise under pressure” in this visually stunning and wonderfully acted, anti-authoritarian tale of friendship, trust and redemption.
Provocatively exploring issues of queer representation, gender and trans identity in ways that contemporary LGBTQIA+ culture and cinema are still catching up with, By Hook or by Crook has created a powerful cultural impact that endures today. The film has been digitally restored in 4K by the Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in conjunction with Frameline, Outfest, Steakhaus Productions, Inc., and the Sundance Institute.
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Before he created the music, he lived every bit of it.
Our Staff Pick for the month of June comes from Allyssa, one of our Box Office Managers! She has chosen the mythmaking rock Drama Purple Rain!
A victim of his own anger, the Kid is a Minneapolis musician on the rise with his band, the Revolution, escaping a tumultuous home life through music. While trying to avoid making the same mistakes as his truculent father, the Kid navigates the club scene and a rocky relationship with a captivating singer, Apollonia. But another musician, Morris, looks to steal the Kid’s spotlight…and his girl.
Purple Rain is a film powered by pure charisma and one of the greatest soundtracks ever recorded. Songs like “Let’s Go Crazy,” “When Doves Cry,” and the immortal title track were made to shake theater walls, and seeing Prince command the screen in all his magnetic brilliance is a reminder of just how singular a performer he was. Great pick, Allyssa!
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